Schools with nutritious food and little to no screentime

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here! Thanks for those who mentioned actual suggestions (Waldorf, Lady of Lourdes). We already pack her lunch, in addition to giving her breakfast at home super early, since we send her in for beforecare and don’t want her to get stuck eating their breakfast menu which would just be sugary cereals. It’s junk food and candy for snacks during class before they dismiss in the afternoon, at aftercare (provided by the school), for incentives to do well in school, and for every school event. I was looking for actual school names where people have experience with a whole food-based school culture and candy isn’t used as an incentive. Or at least if she’s getting plied with junk food, she isn’t also glued to a screen all day on top of it.

This is a rampant problem at public and private schools. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Montessori, OP. I’m not in the area anymore so I cannot give specific school suggestions, but I’d start looking into private Montessori elementary schools. The one my children went to had no screens used in classroom or childcare. The exceptions were they used them for standardized testing twice per year and the older elementary kids would type some papers. All the kids brought packed lunches and school provided a heathy snack for childcare (usually whole fruit). There was a kitchen in the classroom monthly the older kids would pick a “hot lunch” meal, plan out the ingredients, budget, shop for it and cook it from scratch as part of their morning work and serve to the rest of class. Montessori schools can vary and some are better than others, so definitely go look and ask questions about academic curriculum and how kids are regularly assessed.

My kids went through 6th grade and had zero issues moving on to public school. They probably could have skipped middle school all together, that is how far ahead academically they were

[Anonymous]

OP - Are you seriously looking for a public school experience? No public school in this country has funding for the kinds of food options you are looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - Are you seriously looking for a public school experience? No public school in this country has funding for the kinds of food options you are looking for.

It doesn’t cost money to stop giving junk food all the time. Aside from the required breakfast and lunch schools must provided, they could just stop the junk train of all the extras.

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP's concern. And since you asked about NWDC schools, can say this is a problem for us at Janney, so cross that off your list! When I pick my daughter up from aftercare, she's often in the process of polishing off a bag of cheetos / godlfish /etc, the type of food we work hard to avoid at home. We send her with a packed lunch, though some of it often comes home uneaten (and I assume she is raiding the less nutritious lunches of other kids or forgoing in favor of whatever snacks are served).

All that said, while it goes against the grain of how we eat at home, it's not enough of a reason to switch schools (for us, Janney has otherwise been stellar). And your kid is going to have poor food choices available to them as they grow up, so as with much of parenting, you can't control everything. Hopefully setting a good example at home is enough to ingrain some good eating habits. And let's be real: I grew up on pop-tarts and boxed cereal before getting crunchy as an adult, things worked out OK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look for a Waldorf school - they will have what you are looking for

Waldorf kids are so weird. Please do not patronize these schools. Find a Montessori, alternative learning, anything. Waldorf has become a place that you take refuge when your child has extreme issues and you want to hide it and not be pressured into fixing it. The entire system and the school is super creepy and weird. please don’t send your kids there.

[Anonymous]

Screen time: it depends on what they are watching. My kids loved Magic School Bus. They are teens now, and they still remember some science from that show. I also love that show.

[Anonymous]

Washington Latin is very low on screens.

[Anonymous]

What about Rochambeau for food? Can we at least rely on the French to pull us out of the processed food morass for our child?